AN 

EXPOSITION 

or 

THE  REASONS 

FOR  TUB 

RESIGNATION  OF  SOME  OF  THE  PROFESSORS 

IN  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

THE    CITY   OF  NEW-YORK. 


PRINTED  BY  JAS.  VAN  NORDEN, 

N'o.  43  William-street. 


1833. 


|  o  9-9 


lEx  ICtbrtB 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


T^bew  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  it  has  been  said 
"£ver'tbing  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 

)  ■  j      I     -  r     <  j-^ 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


TO  THE  PUBLIC- 


We,  the  undersigned,  proceed  to  redeem  the  pledge  which  we  lately 
gave  to  the  public,  to  explain  to  them  the  reasons  why  we  have  re- 
signed our  professorships  in  the  University  of  this  city.  The  task  we 
have  undertaken  to  perform  is  of  the  most  painful  description,  and  one 
which  we  would  gladly  have  avoided,  could  we  have  done  so  without,  in 
our  opinion,  a  dereliction  of  duty.  Statements  must  be  made  involving 
serious  charges  against  a  number  of  men,  and  more  particularly  against 
one  individual,  on  whom  circumstances  have  devolved  the  management 
of  an  institution,  to  the  success  and  usefulness  of  which  the  undersigned, 
in  common  with  a  large  number  of  the  friends  of  literature  and  of  a 
sound  education,  have  heretofore  looked  with  anxious  expectation.  In 
making  those  statements  there  is,  however,  every  disposition  to  avoid 
all  unnecessary  harshness,  and,  as  far  as  is  practicable,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  courtesy  even  while  exposing  offences,  not  only  violating  the 
laws  of  courtesy,  but  those  likewise  of  order,  of  honour,  and  of  morality 
itself.  And  the  undersigned  will  endeavour  to  earn  from  the  public  the 
same  commendation  which  they  received  from  a  committee  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  the  University  with  whom  they  were  lately  invited  to  confer, 
and  which  was  expressed  to  them  at  the  time  by  the  chairman  of  that 
committee, — to  wit,  that  the  statements  made  by  them  on  that  occasion, 
in  respect  to  the  matters  which  are  to  constitute  the  subject  of  the 
present  publication,  were  made  with  all  proper  decorum. 

The  University  was  organized  towards  the  end  of  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember, 1832;  and,  after  the  examination  of  the  applicants  for  ad- 
mission to  the  different  classes,  the  several  courses  of  instruction  were 
immediately  commenced.  From  that  period  it  was  apparent  that  the 
"  Chancellor"  was  to  be  a  very  different  officer  from  what  had  been 
anticipated.  It  was  natural  to  suppDse,  after  all  that  had  been  written 
and  published  on  the  subject,  and  after  what  had  transpired  in  relation 
to  the  University,  at  the  meetings,  in  this  city,  of  the  "  Literary  Con- 
vention," that  it  was  intended  to  establish  an  institution  which,  instead  of 
being  of  the  same  nature  as  the  colleges  already  existing  in  our  country* 


4 


should  aim  at  as  near  an  approach  to  the  Universities  of  Europe  as  the 
demands  of  the  American  public  would  justify.  It  was  natural,  too,  to 
suppose  that  the  duties  of  the  Chancellor,  from  the  very  name  of  his 
office,— borrowed  as  it  is  from  the  English  Universities, — would  be  those 
of  very  general  superintendence,  and  that  he  would,  indeed,  preside  over 
the  body  of  Professors,  or  the  Faculty,  only  on  extraordinary  or  cere- 
monial occasions.  These  very  natural  expectations  were  disappointed. 
We  perceived,  at  the  very  first  meetings  of  the  Faculty,  that  the  Chan, 
cellor  did  not  dream  of  an  institution  of  an  order  more  elevated  than 
that  of  a  college,  and  that  he  meant  to  be  its  President ;  and  this  not 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  word  is  universally  understood  in  our  colleges, 
that  is,  as  the  chairman  of  the  Faculty,  in  whom  the  immediate  admi- 
nistration of  the  institution  is  vested,  and  as  the  organ  of  formal  com. 
munication  on  their  behalf  to  the  students  and  to  the  public,  but  as  one 
invested  with  a  right  to  superintend  and  direct,  without  control,  in  the 
minutest  particulars. 

With  some  difficulty  the  Chancellor  was  induced  to  give  his  assent 
to  that  modification  of  our  college  systems,  which  was  actually  adopted 
by  the  Faculty,  as  the  nearest  approximation  to  the  true  university 
scheme  that  could  be  obtained  by  them.  But  although  that  officer 
evinced  frequently  a  disposition  to  relapse  into  his  former  views,  the 
matter  in  question  did  not  become  a  source  of  difficulty  between  him 
and  the  Faculty ;  and  it  has  been  here  stated  only  to  give  to  the  reader 
a  more  precise  understanding  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  University, 
when  the  Professors  first  came  together.  Respecting  the  powers  and 
prerogatives  exercised  by  the  Chancellor,  the  remedy  was  not  so  easy ; 
the  more  especially  because,  when  spoken  to  on  the  subject,  the  holder 
of  that  office  (the  Rev.  Dr.  Mathews)  was  ever  ready  in  words  to 
assent  to  the  views  expressed  by  any  of  the  Professors,  as  to  the  pro- 
priety  of  all  measures  being  decided  by  the  general  voice  of  the  Faculty. 
Such  assent  was,  however,  only  verbal,  or,  at  all  events,  was  forgotten 
in  his  practice.  In  his  intercourse  with,  and  communications  to  the 
students,  he  continually  assumed  the  exercise  of  functions  that  belong, 
and  ought  to  belong,  only  to  the  Faculty  in  their  collective  capacity. 
And  in  the  meetings  of  the  Faculty,  not  only  was  the  question  often 
artfully  evaded  and  not  put  to  the  vote,  but  the  authority  of  the  Coun- 
cil was  occasionally  brought  to  bear  upon  the  Professors,  to  induce  them 
to  come  to  a  decision  contrary  to  their  own  convictkms  of  propriety,  or 
not  to  decide  at  all  on  a  matter  under  consideration.  This,  too,  to  say 
the  least  of  it,  when  there  had  been  no  action  whatever  by  the  Council 
on  the  subject. 

If,  under  these  circumstances,  Dr.  Mathews  had  been,  in  our  opinion, 

.   [ 


particularly  skilful  in  the  management  of  the  discipline  of  the  University, 
the  case  would  not  have  been  so  absolutely  discouraging  as  it  was. 
But,  on  the  contrary,  his  failure  on  this  point  was,  in  our  view,  most 
egregious.  He  was  feeble  and  timid.  His  ear  was  ever  open  to  com- 
plaints of  students  against  the  Professors ;  and  his  admonitions  to  the 
former  were  administered  in  so  inefficient  a  manner,  as  to  be  calculated 
to  produce  no  other  effect  than  to  encourage  and  harden  the  offender. 
During  the  whole  of  the  past  year  we  felt  ourselves,  in  consequence, 
engaged  in  a  perpetual  struggle  to  maintain  the  discipline  of  the  institu- 
tion against  the  relaxation  of  it  resulting  from  the  maladministration  of 
the  Chancellor.*  It  may  here  be  mentioned,  because  on  our  present 
topic  we  are  anxious  not  to  be  misunderstood,  that  we  are  no  friends  to 
a  severe  discipline.  This  only  becomes  necessary  when  causes  exist 
of  an  injurious  operation  in  respect  to  the  preservation  of  order,  or 
when  discipline  has  been  previously  too  much  relaxed.  We  believe 
that  where  good  order  and  propriety  of  deportment  are  strictly  and 
uniformly  enforced,  young  men,  though  congregated  together  in  con- 
siderable numbers,  may  be  treated  very  kindly ;  but  we  believe,  like- 
wise, that  such  treatment  can  be  applied  with  impunity  only  then. 

For  a  considerable  time  the  Professors,  although  placed,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  state  of  things  which  we  have  described,  in  very  un 
comfortable  circumstances, — rendered  also  in  the  public  view  responsi- 
ble for  the  right  administration  of  the  government  of  the  University, 
which  was,  in  fact,  not  administered  by  them,  but  by  the  Chancellor, — 
and  reduced  in  the  estimation  of  the  students,  by  the  perpetual  inter- 
ferences of  that  officer,  to  the  rank  of  subordinate  teachers  in  an  aca- 
demy,— yet  bore  and  forbore  with  patience,  looking,  but  looking  in 
vain,  to  the  gradual  effects  of  a  gentle  pressure  on  the  mind  of  the 
Chancellor.  When  this  was  found  to  be  of  no  effect,  several  members 
of  the  Faculty  conversed  with  him  privately  on  the  subject  :  they 
urged  upon  him  a  different  course  from  that  which  he  had  hitherto 
pursued  ; — they  did  this  at  first  mildly ;  afterwards  in  decided  terms  ; 
and  at  length  in  terms  the  most  decided.  The  Chancellor  was  gene- 
rally ready,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  to  assent  to  every  thing  that 


*  It  is  proper  to  state  that  Dr.  Torrey  was  absent  from  the  city,  from  the 
latter  part  of  February  till  the  second  week  in  August  last,  when  his  labours  in 
the  University  were  again  resumed.  Since  his  return  lie  has,  however,  taken 
every  pains  to  inform  himself  of  what  passed  in  the  institution  during  his  absence, 
and  has  heard  the  fullest  statements  on  the  subject  from  the  Chancellor,  as  well 
as  from  all  the  Professors  constituting  the  Faculty  proper.  With  this  full 
knowledge  it  is  that  he  comes  forward  to  bear  the  testimony  which  he  does. 


0 


Wa9  required  of  him.  Nevertheless,  as  has  also  been  mentioned,  his 
assent  was  altogether  a  theoretical  one  :  in  practice  his  course  conti- 
nued to  be  the  same  as  before.  The  opinions  of  a  majority  of  the 
Professors  were,  in  the  next  place,  expressed  openly  at  meetings  of  the 
Faculty.  It  was  all  to  no  purpose  :  the  Chancellor  continued  to  be 
the  same  individual  still,  in  despite  of  the  promises  which  he,  as  usual, 
did  not  hesitate  to  make. 

At  length,  after  every  hope  of  placing  the  administration  of  the 
University  on  a  proper  footing,  by  their  own  acts,  appeared  to  the 
Faculty  to  have  vanished,  they  adopted  a  resolution,  on  the  4th  day  of 
last  October,  to  bring  the  subject  before  the  Council.  This  resolution 
was  singularly  moderate  ; — it  censured  no  one — it  accused  no  one.  It 
simply  stated,  that  it  was  manifest,  from  the  proceedings  of  the  last 
year,  that  differences  of  opinion  existed  between  the  Chancellor  and 
the  Professors,  in  relation  to  their  respective  powers,  which  they  re- 
spectfully called  upon  the  Council  to  determine  with  as  much  precision 
as  may  be.  The  reader  will  perceive  that  the  resolution,  as  described, 
aimed  directly  only  at  the  correction  of  the  evils  arising  from  the  undue 
exercise  by  the  Chancellor  of  those  functions  that  belong  to  the  pro- 
vince of  the  Faculty  collectively,  or  of  the  Professors  individually. 
This  was  the  only  part  of  his  conduct  that  could  be  reached,  without 
preferring  formal  charges  against  him,  which  we  were  as  yet  unwilling, 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  to  do. 

If  nothing  had  occurred  to  interfere  with  the  simple  action  of  the 
Council  in  the  case,  it  may  still  be  doubted  whether  it  had  not  already 
become  impossible  for  the  existing  Faculty  to  continue  for  any  length 
of  time  to  act  together.  While  the  utmost  good  feeling  and  harmony 
had  subsisted  among  all  the  Professors,  the  confidence  in  Dr.  Mathews 
of  nearly  every  one  of  their  number  who  had  co-operated  with  him 
during  the  last  year  in  the  administration  of  the  University,  or,  in  other 
words,  of  nearly  every  one  who  had  constituted  in  that  period  the  act- 
ing Faculty,  hung  by  a  very  slender  thread,  which  was  destined  to  be 
speedily  snapped  asunder.  Dr.  Mathews  resisted  most  pertinaciously 
the  adoption  of  the  resolution  of  which  mention  has  been  made,  on 
account  of  its  preamble,  where  reference  is  had  to  a  difference  of  opi- 
nion in  the  Faculty ;  which  difference  of  opinion  is  inferred  from  the 
history  of  the  proceedings  of  that  body  during  the  past  year.  He 
stated,  that  he  thought  some  of  the  statutes  of  the  University  might  be 
amended  with  advantage,  and  that  he  was  willing  to  send  a  resolution 
to  the  Council,  requesting  them  to  make  such  amendments  as  were 
desirable;  but  he  did  not  wish  them  to  be  made  acquainted  with 
the  existence  of  any  difficulties  in  the  Faculty.    He  moreover  stated, 


7 


that  no  differences  of  opinion,  of  the  kind  specified,  in  reality  existed 
between  himself  and  the  Professors.  In  short,  he  was  entirely  of  their 
way  of  thinking  on  all  points.  Now  had  not  Dr.  Mathews  before 
repeatedly  made  similar  professions  of  according  in  sentiment  with  the 
Professors,  and  had  he  not  repeatedly  promised  that  all  causes  of  com- 
plaint against  him  on  their  part  should  be  removed, — professions  and 
promises,  however,  as  easily  forgotten  as  made, — the  Faculty  would 
not  only  have  conceded  to  him  the  striking  out  of  the  obnoxious  pre- 
amble, but  would  have  withdrawn  the  resolution  altogether.  But  they 
were  well  satisfied  that  nothing  could  bind  Dr.  Mathews  excepting  an 
apprehension  on  his  part  of  displeasing  the  Council,  by  a  violation  of 
such  rules  or  regulations  as  that  body  might  think  it  expedient  to  enact 
as  a  check  upon  him,  if  even  that  could  do  it ;  and  it  was  important, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Faculty,  that  the  Council  should  know  the  fact  of 
the  existence  among  them  of  difficulties,  in  order  that  they  (the  Coun- 
cil) might  not  content  themselves  with  acting  on  the  subject  of  the 
resolution  sent  them,  either  hastily  or  vaguely. 

When  it  was  presented  by  the  Chancellor  to  the  Council,  a  commit- 
tee of  three  persons  was  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Faculty,  con- 
cerning the  regulations  proper  to  attain  the  object  proposed.  But  at 
the  very  meeting  when  this  was  done,  the  Chancellor,  while  he  pre- 
sented the  resolution  of  the  Faculty  in  a  manner  to  produce  an  impres- 
sion of  his  having  acquiesced  in  its  passage,  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  vote 
to  lower  Mr.  Mulligan's  salary  from  fifteen  hundred  to  a  thousand  dollars. 
What  the  reasons  urged  by  the  Chancellor  or  his  friends  were  for  this 
measure,  we  are  not  distinctly  informed  ;  but  it  is  now  well  ascertained, 
that  the  reasons  stated  were  not  the  true  ones  which  actuated  the 
movers  of  it.  The  fact  was,  that  such  a  discrepancy  of  views  sub- 
sisted between  the  Chancellor  and  Professor  Mulligan,  as,  in  the  opi- 
nion  of  the  former,  and  of  a  certain  committee,  denominated  the  "  Com- 
mittee of  Advice,"  to  render  it  inexpedient,  and  indeed  impossible,  for 
those  gentlemen  to  remain  together  in  the  University ;  and  it  was  there- 
fore resolved  by  the  parties  just  mentioned,  to  take  decisive  steps  to 
effect  the  removal  of  Mr.  Mulligan.  The  «  Committee  of  Advice,"  it 
would  seem,  did  not  hesitate  to  act  in  the  case,  on  the  mere  representa- 
tion  of  Dr.  Mathews.  Without  preferring  charges  against  Mr.  Mulli- 
gan, and  of  course  without  giving  him  any  opportunity  of  showing  why 
his  salary  ought  not  to  be  reduced,  and  ichy  he  ought  not  to  be  removed, 
they  proceeded  to  accomplish  their  object  in  as  quiet  a  manner  as  pos- 
sible. 

Now,  inasmuch  as  Mr.  Mulligan's  opinions  of  the  Chancellor,  and 
disapprobation  of  the  course  pursued  by  him  in  the  University,  were 


8 


common  to  him  with  other  members  of  the  Faculty,  it  was  impossible 
for  them  not  to  feel  that  the  blow  struck  against  him  was  aimed  also  at 
them,  and  that  when  he  should  have  been  disposed  of,  their  turn  would 
come  next.  And  the  reduction  of  Mr.  Mulligan's  salary,  when  viewed 
in  connexion  with  the  raising  of  that  of  the  only  member  of  the  acting 
Faculty  of  the  last  year  (Mr.  Tappan)  who  adhered  to  the  Chancellor, 
could  not  but  be  regarded  by  them  as  an  attempt  to  rob  the  Professors 
generally  of  their  independence,  and  to  render  them  entirely  subservient 
to  Dr.  Mathews.  Low  as  the  latter  had  already  fallen  in  their  esti- 
mation, he  now  fell  to  a  lower  depth  still.  To  his  incapacity,  usurpa- 
tions, and  inaccurate  statements  of  facts,  were  now  to  be  added  a  dis. 
position  to  remove  such  Professors  as  were  opposed  to  his  views  of 
discipline  and  of  management,  and  on  the  other  hand  to  reward  those 
who  should  approve  of  them, — and  a  disposition,  too,  to  act  in  this  man- 
ner quietly  and  in  the  dark,  without  disclosing,  even  to  the  Council,  what 
his  real  motives  were.  We  could  besides  feel  very  little  or  no  confi- 
dence in  the  majority  of  that  body,  who  could  be  so  ready  to  do  the 
bidding  of  the  Chancellor,  and  of  his  Committee  of  Advice. 

We  speak  of  a  majority  of  the  Council,  because  we  are  aware  of  the 
existence  of  a  minority  of  that  body,  composed  of  independent  men,  who 
have  done  every  thing  that  lay  in  their  power  to  administer  the  affairs 
of  the  University  on  fair  and  honourable  principles ;  but  we  wish  also 
to  be  understood  as  not  meaning  to  stigmatize  the  members  of  that 
majority  as  acting  from  improper  motives.  We  believe  them,  however, 
to  be  not  sufficiently  alive  to  their  responsibility,  and  to  be  acting 
inconsiderately,  when  they  are  ready  to  admit  the  suggestion  of  a  single 
individual,  or  of  a  small  number  of  individuals,  without  proper  inquiry 
of  their  own.  They  may  depend  upon  it,  that  the  excuse  rendered  for 
them  by  one  of  their  own  number,  in  the  conference  of  the  Faculty  with 
the  committee,  appointed  by  the  Council  on  the  presentation  to  them  of 
the  resolution  above  mentioned,  and  of  which  committee  that  gentleman 
was  a  member,  will  not  be  regarded  as  valid,  either  by  the  public,  or  a 
still  higher  tribunal.  To  say,  with  that  gentleman,  that  a  body,  con- 
stituted  as  is  the  Council,  of  thirty-seven  persons,  mostly  men  of  busi- 
ness, must  find  it  altogether  out  of  the  question  to  attend  to  the  affairs 
of  the  institution  committed  to  their  charge,  except  in  a  very  general 
manner,  and  that  they  must,  therefore,  necessarily  devolve  the  transac- 
tion of  many  matters  of  importance  on  a  comparatively  small  number 
of  their  body ; — and  to  say  farther,  as  that  gentleman  did  say,  in  justi- 
fication of  the  course  just  mentioned,  that  the  Council,  nevertheless, 
always  ratified  what  was  done, — is  only  acknowledging  the  unfitness  of 


9 


the  Council,  as  at  present  constituted,  for  the  guardianship  of  the  im- 
portant trusts  confided,  for  the  public  benefit,  to  their  charge. 

But  to  proceed.  A  memorial  was  prepared  and  presented  to  the 
Council  by  Mr.  Mulligan,  requesting  that  Lie  resolution  to  lower  his 
salary  should  be  rescinded,  on  the  general  ground  of  injustice  having 
been  done  to  him  by  the  violation  of  the  contract  between  him  and  the 
University  when  he  was  appointed  a  Professor, — which  was,  that  he 
should  at  first  receive  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  and  as  soon 
as  the  state  of  the  funds  would  allow,  two  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars, — and  on  the  ground  also  of  its  being  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  spirit  of  one  of  the  printed  statutes  of  the  University,  on  the 
faith  of  which  he  had  consented  to  accept  a  professorship  when  solicited 
to  do  so.  The  statute  referred  to  declares  that  no  Professor  shall  be 
removed  except  by  a  vote  of  a  majority  of  all  the  members  of  the  Council, 
and  at  a  meeting  a  month's  notice  of  which  shall  be  given.  Now  it  is 
plain  that  a  Professor  may  ba  quite  as  effectually  removed  by  lowering 
his  sdary,  as  by  a  formal  resolution  to  that  effect.  If  reducing,  too, 
his  salary  to  one  thousand  dc  liars  be  not  sufficient  for  the  purpose  in- 
tended, the  reduction  can  be  carried  to  one  hundred  dollars,  one  dollar,  or 
one  cent.  And  the  measure  actually  adopted  by  the  Council, — adopted 
by  them  because  recommended  by  the  Committae  of  Advice,— -and  re- 
commended by  that  committee  at  the  suggestion  of  the  Chancellor,  and 
with  the  object  distinctly  in  view  of  quietly  getting  rid  of  Mr.  Mulligan, — 
was  adopted  at  a  meeting  called  without  the  prop3i*  not'ce  of  which  we 
have  above  spoken,  and  when,  as  we  are  on  good  authority  informed, 
only  fifteen  members  out  of  thirty. seven  were  present ;  and  when,  com 
sequently,  had  all  these  gentlemen  voted  in  favour  of  the  measure  pro- 
posed, which  they  did  not,  they  would  not  have  made  up  the  majority 
of  all  the  members,  as  required  by  the  statute. 

Several  of  the  other  Professors  now  did  not  hesitate  to  express  it  as 
their  opinion  to  members  of  the  Council,  that  an  investigation  of  the 
affairs  of  the  University,  more  particularly  in  reference  to  the  conduct 
of  the  Chancellor,  and  the  difficulties  existing  in  the  Faculty,  had  be- 
come indispensable  to  save  the  institution  from  ruin;  and  they  also 
expressed  strongly  their  feelings  of  sympathy  with  Professor  Mulligan, 
and  their  condemnation  of  the  management  of  the  Chancellor,  and  of 
the  spirit  evinced  by  him. 

A  distinct  motion  for  inquiry  was  rejected  in  the  Council ;  and  Mr, 
Mulligan's  memorial  referred  to  a  c<  mmittee,  of  which  James  Tall- 
madge,  Esq.,  was  the  chairman.  Before  this  committee  Mr.  Mulligan 
appeared ;  but  on  being  informed  that  it  was  not  their  intention  to  enter 
into  any  investigation  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Faculty,  and  that 

2 


10 


they  declined  any  meeting  with  the  Chancellor  and  Professors,  he,  on 
his  part,  declined  saying  any  thing  farther  on  the  subject  of  his  memo- 
rial, but  left  it,  and  the  justice  of  the  case,  to  speak  for  themselves. 

The  committee  of  three,  appointed  to  confer  with  the  Faculty  con- 
cerning the  rules  and  regulations  to  be  passed  by  the  Council,  in  order 
to  define,  with  as  much  precision  as  may  be,  the  limits  of  the  powers 
respectively  belonging  to  the  Chancellor  and  Professors,  at  length  re- 
quested a  conference  with  the  Faculty.  The  Faculty  accordingly 
assembled  at  the  appointed  hour  ;  and  not  only  were  the  undersigned 
present,  who,  with  Dr.  Mathews  and  Mr.  Tappan,  constituted  all  that 
remained  of  the  acting  or  governing  Faculty  of  the  last  year,  (Mr. 
Douglass  having  resigned  his  professorship  early  in  the  summer,)  but 
also  the  three  gentlemen  who  had  been  very  lately  appointed  Professors, 
together  with  three  other  gentlemen,  two  of  whom  (Professors  of  mo- 
dern languages)  may  possibly  have  been  present  at  some  two  or  three 
meetings  of  the  Faculty  during  the  past  year,  but  who  even  then  had 
come  to  obtain  information,  or  to  give  information,  respecting  their  parti- 
cular departments,  and  not  with  a  view  to  take  any  part  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  University, — and  the  remaining  one  of  the  three  had  not 
till  then  attended  even  a  single  meeting.  Why  these  three  gentlemen 
should  have  been  present,  while  others  connected  with  the  institution 
were  absent,  and  were  not  even  summoned  to  attend,  it  seems  difficult 
to  explain,  excepting  on  the  supposition — and  it  is  a  supposition  which, 
in  reference  to  the  general  policy  of  that  officer,  it  is  allowable  to 
make — that  the  Chancellor  was  desirous  of  having  as  many  individuals 
present,  who,  from  the  fact  of  their  having  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
administration  of  the  University,  as  well  as  from  any  other  cause,  he 
knew  would  be  willing  to  say  to  the  committee,  that  they  were  not  dis- 
posed to  make  any  complaint  against  him.  The  truth  of  the  supposi- 
tion which  we  have  permitted  ourselves  to  make,  is  rendered  extremely 
probable  by  the  fact,  that  the  committee  thought  proper  to  state  to  the 
Council,  (as  we  understand,)  that  it  was  only  a  minority  of  the  Profes- 
sors who  were  dissatisfied,  thus  counting  the  professors  per  capita,  with- 
out regard  to  the  amount  of  duties  performed,  or  the  responsibilities 
severally  imposed  upon  them. 

The  committee  of  three,  unlike  the  larger  committee,  to  which  Mr. 
Mulligan's  memorial  had  been  referred,  had  no  scruple  to  transcend  the 
authority  granted  them  by  the  Council.  Though  appointed  specifically 
to  digest,  after  consultation  with  the  Faculty,  a  system  of  rules  calcu- 
lated to  fix,  with  as  much  precision  as  was  practicable,  the  limits  of  the 
powers  belonging  to  the  Chancellor  and  Professors  respectively,  they 
resolved  on  entering,  as  preliminary  to  the  performance  of  their  proper 


11 


duties,  on  the  investigation  of  all  the  difficulties  in  the  Faculty  ;  and, 

on  some  hesitation  being  evinced  on  our  part  to  make  a  statement  of 
those  difficulties  to  the  committee,  it  was  urged  upon  us,  that  if  we  de- 
clined to  do  so  when  an  opportunity  was  offered,  it  would  be  the  duty 
of  the  committee  to  state  the  fact  to  the  Council.  The  statement  thus 
asked  for  was  then  made  ;  and  it  was  made  the  more  readily,  after  a 
moment's  reflection — and  more  time  for  reflection  was  not  presented — 
on  the  principle  that  we  would  not  have  refused  to  communicate  any 
information  in  our  possession,  concerning  the  affairs  of  the  University, 
to  any  member  or  members  of  the  Council,  who  might  at  any  time  have 
made  inquiry  of  us  on  the  subject.  But  we  certainly  had  not  the  least 
idea  that  what  we  should  say  to  the  committee  would  be  any  bar,  or 
ought  to  be  any  bar,  to  our  being  heard  before  the  Council,  should  we 
subsequently  think  such  a  course  to  be  desirable.  Had  we  formed  the 
remotest  conjecture  that  our  having  already  had  a  hearing,  such  as  it 
was,  would  be  used  to  check  investigation  before  the  Council,  we  would 
not  only  have  hesitated,  but  have  absolutely  refused,  to  say  a  syllable 
before  the  committee. 

We  knew  full  well  that  we  had  little  favour  to  expect  from  the  gen- 
tlemen who  composed  it.  To  exhibit  unequivocally  to  the  reader  the 
bias  under  which  they  sat  in  judgment  in  the  case  before  them,  we 
shall  state  a  fact  or  two.  When  Mr.  Mulligan  called  upon  James 
Tallmadge,  Esq.,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  who  is  also  the  Vice 
President  of  the  Council,  and,  we  believe,  for  some  time  back,  its  act- 
ing  President,  to  urge  upon  him  the  necessity  of  investigation  on  the 
part  of  the  other  committee,  which  had  been  appointed  on  the  memo- 
rial of  Mr.  Mulligan,  and  of  which  committee,  as  has  been  stated,  he 
(Mr.  Tallmadge)  was  also  the  chairman,  this  gentleman  was  so  pre- 
possessed with  the  statements  which  had  been  made  from  an  opposite 
quarter,  and  so  full  of  zeal  in  behalf  of  the  Chancellor,  as, — before 
investigation,  it  will  be  recollected, — to  inform  Mr.  Mulligan  that  the 
Professors  should  be  treated  with  severity,  and  that  they  would  be 
made  to  feel  their  own  insignificancy.  And  this  was  far  from  being 
all ; — for  when  Mr.  Mulligan  stated  that  some  of  the  charges  against 
Dr.  Mathews  were  such  as  seriously  to  affect  his  moral  character,  Mr. 
Tallmadge,  forgetting  the  decorum  due  to  a  stranger,  a  clergyman,  and 
a  gentleman,  replied,  that  lie  hoped  there  was  nothing  about  women  in  the 
case,  that  they  (the  Council,  we  presume)  could  get  along  with  any  thing 
but  that,  (at  the  same  time  introducing  other  matter  of  the  kind  still 
more  objectionable.)  Now  as  we  did  not  pretend  to  possess  any  infor- 
mation of  the  kind  thus  stated,  as  peculiarly,  or  rather  alone,  obnoxious 
to  the  censure  of  the  Council,  we  could  scarcelv  expect,  by  any  thing 


we  couid  say  to  produce  an  impression  on  the  mind  of  Mr.  Tallmadge* 
But  this  was  not  the  whole  evidence  which  was  exhibited  by  that  gentle- 
man of  his  determination  to  sustain  Dr.  Mathews  at  all  hazards.  On 
more  than  One  occasion,  during  the  investigation  or  inquiry  instituted 
by  the  committee,  he  forgot  the  judicial  character  which  he  had  assumed, 
and  sank  down  into  the  advocate  of  the  Chancellor. 

We  shall  specify  one  instance,  which  will,  at  the  same  time,  serve  to 
exemplify  that  course  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  last-mentioned 
individual  which  has  lost  him  our  confidence  : — Mr.  Tallmadge,  ad- 
dressing himself  to  Mr.  Vethake,  said, — suppose  that  it  shall  be  made 
distinctly  to  appear  that  Mr.  Mulligan's  salary  was  reduced  solely  from 
motives  of  economy,  would  not  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Mathews  appear  to 
you  in  a  different  light  ?  Mr.  Vethake  seeming  surprised  at  what  had 
just  been  said,  Mr.  Tallmadge  repeated  it  deliberately.  Mr.  Vethake 
then  remarked,  that  the  supposition  made  was  an  impossible  one,  since 
Dr.  Mathews  had  admitted  to  him  that  Mr.  Mulligan's  salary  was 
lowered  for  the  purpose  of  removing  that  gentleman  from  the  Univer- 
sity. I  admitted  it !  said  Dr.  Mathews.  Yes,  continued  Mr.  Vethake, 
you  did.  On  the  next  day  to  that  on  which  his  salary  was  reduced,  I 
charged  you  with  having  caused  it  to  be  done  for  the  purpose  of  getting 
rid  of  Mr.  Mulligan  you  remained  silent.  I  blamed  you  for  so  act* 
ing  ; — you  stood  before  me  without  saying  a  word.  I  censured  you  in 
the  most  decided  terms ; — still  you  had  nothing  to  urge  in  reply.  This 
I  call  admitting  the  facts  charged.  But  this  is  not  all  :  Dr  Milnor  told 
me  the  same  thing*  What  did  Dr.  Milnor  say  ?  asked  Mr.  Tallmadge. 
He  said,  that  it  appeared  from  the  statements  of  Dr.  Mathews,  that 
such  a  state  of  feeling  existed  between  the  latter  and  Mr.  Mulligan,  as 
to  put  it  out  of  the  question  for  both  to  remain  in  the  University  toge- 
ther. It  had  therefore  been  resolved  on  in  the  Committee  of  Advice, 
to  lower  that  Professor's  salary,  in  order  to  drive  him  from  the  institu- 
tion. Take  down  his  (Mr.  Vethake's)  words,  immediately  cried  Dr. 
Mathews.  Mr.  V*  then  remarked,  that  he  did  not  intend  to  vouch  for 
the  particular  phraseology  employed  by  Dr.  Milnor  ;  that  it  was  quite 
probaole  that  that  gentleman  had  not  used  the  term  to  drive  :  he  thought 
he  had  not ;  but  that  Dr.  Milnor  communicated  to  him  the  idea  dis- 
tinctly of  its  having  been  intended  by  the  measure  in  question  to  effect 
the  removal  of  Mr.  Mulligan,  he  was  sure  of.  Mr.  Vethake's  state- 
ment was  now  minuted  down,  by  the  direction  of  Mr.  Tallmadge.  It 
may  be  mentioned,  that  Dr.  Mathews  took  the  stand  that  has  just  been 
described,  in  opposition  to  what  had  been  stated  by  Mr.  Vethake,  al- 
though he  had  not  only  admitted  the  truth  of  it  to  that  gentleman,  but 
also  to  Dr.  Torrey.    When  charged  by  the  latter  with  having  aimed 


13 


at  the  removal  of  Mr.  Mulligan,  by  reducing  his  salary,  he  (Dr.  Ma* 
thews,)  as  he  had  done  in  his  conversation  with  Mr.  Vethake,  had  no* 
thing  to  say,  and  he  continued  silent  while  Dr.  Torrey  said  to  him,  you 
do  not  deny  this,  sir, — you  cannot  deny  this  ;  and  while  Dr.  Torrey 
expressed  to  him  his  decided  disapprobation  of  the  course  he  (Dr.  Ma- 
thews) had  pursued  towards  Mr.  Mulligan*  To  another  gentleman, 
not  connected  with  the  University,  Dr.  Mathews  had  not  only  ad* 
mitted,  but  positively  asserted,  in  defending  the  measure  of  reducing 
Mr.  Mulligan's  salary,  that  this  had  been  done  expressly  to  remove 
him  from  the  University.  He  had  said,  that  he  thought  it  was  the 
quietest  way  of  getting  rid  of  him. 

When  the  Faculty  met  with  the  committee  on  the  next  day,  Mr.  Vet- 
hake  was  provided  with  these  additional  facts,  or  rather,  in  so  far  as 
the  last-mentioned  one  was  concerned,  he  had  received  authority  to 
make  use  of  it,  for  he  was  acquainted  with  it  before.  He  would  have 
stated  them  to  the  committee,  not  only  for  the  purpose  of  exhibiting  the 
character  of  Dr.  Mathews  to  the  committee  and  to  'all  present  in  its 
true  light,  but  also  in  self-defence,  as  the  truth  of  the  statements  he  had 
himself  made  had  been  called  in  question  by  Dr*  Mathews.  After 
what  had  passed,  and  what  has  been  above  related,  the  reader  will 
judge  of  our  surprise, — for  even  we,  who  had  seen  so  much  of  Dr. 
Mathews,  were  surprised,- — when,  in  maintaining  that  the  reducing  of 
Mr.  Mulligan's  salary  was  not  an  act  of  vengeance  on  account  of  any 
thing  that  had  been  said  or  done  very  lately  in  the  Faculty,  he  assured 
the  gentlemen  present,  that  the  measure  had  been  arranged  and  resolved 
on,  in  the  "Committee  of  Advice,"  so  long  ago  as  last  JULY,  and 
that,  too,  with  the  express  object  of  effecting  the  removal  of  Mr.  Mulli- 
gan ! ! !  And,  what  was  almost  equally  remarkable  with  this  state- 
ment itself,  he  seemed,  while  making  it,  to  be  wholly  unconscious  of  his 
saying  or  doing  any  thing  that  ought  to  be  regarded  as  in  the  least 
degree  surprising,  by  any  one  who  heard  him ! 

We  shall  not  stop  to  inquire  how  the  statement,  just  reported  to  have 
been  made  by  Dr.  Mathews,  consists  with  the  attempt  made  by  him 
and  his  friends  to  justify  their  movement  against  Mr.  Mulligan,  by  the 
purport  of  certain  conversations  alleged  to  have  been  held  by  him 
with  two  individuals,  one  a  fellow  Professor,  and  the  other  an  instruc- 
tor in  the  University,  in  the  month  of  AUGUST  ! 

We  return  to  the  bias  in  favour  of  the  Chancellor,  in  our  opinion, 
very  unequivocally  evinced  by  the  committee.  And  to  conclude  our 
strictures  on  the  course  pursued  by  their  chairman ;  if  he  was  aware, 
when  he  made  the  remark,  and  put  the  question,  which  has  been  men- 
tioned, to  Mr.  Vethake,  of  the  facts  being  such  as  they  were  at  last  as- 


serted  to  be  by  the  Chancellor,  we  will  not  venture  to  characterize  his 
conduct,  but  will  leave  it  to  the  reader  to  do  so  as  he  may  think  it  de- 
serves. We,  however,  cannot  for  a  moment  admit  this  supposition :  he 
was,  no  doubt,  ignorant  of  the  true  state  of  the  facts ;  but  if  so,  it  is  difficult 
to  explain  his  conduct,  excepting  on  the  supposition  of  his  having  been 
made  a  dupe  of.  The  other  two  members  did  also  very  clearly,  as  we 
think,  show  their  partialities.  One  of  them  was  peculiarly  sensitive 
when  any  measure  of  the  Chancellor  was  found  fault  with,  which  had 
been  approved  of  by  the  "  Committee  of  Advice,"  of  which  he  was  a 
member;  and  such  measures  were  not  few  in  number.  The  other 
gentleman  (Mr.  Woolsey)  suffered  his  prejudices  to  bias  his  mind  to 
such  an  extent  as,  after  having  been  absent  during  the  two  days  in 
which  a  statement  of  facts  was  made  against  the  Chancellor,  to  come 
to  hear  the  statement  made  in  his  favour,  and  afterwards  to  bear  testi- 
mony to  the  Council,  with  the  other  members  of  the  committee,  that 
none  of  the  charges  against  Dr.  Mathews  had  been  made  good,  except- 
ing that  on  one  occasion  he  stated  to  the  Council  that  he  had  not  been 
present  at  a  certain  meeting  of  the  Faculty,  when  he  had  been  so:  but 
which  mistatement  the  committee  attributed  to  a  failure  of  memory. 

It  is  proper  to  mention  that  the  Professors  had  been  severally  asked 
by  the  committee  whether,  in  case  Dr.  Mathews  were  continued  in  the 
office  of  Chancellor,  they  would  be  willing  to  remain  in  the  University. 
The  undersigned  had  answered  that  they  had  now  so  entirely  lost  con- 
fidence in  him,  that  they  could  not  think  of  remaining.  Indeed,  they 
thought  it  altogether  impossible  for  the  institution  to  succeed  with  him 
at  its  head ;  and  they  think  so  still.  With  a  full  knowledge  of  our 
views,  the  committee  reported,  as  we  were  informed,  what  it  has  been 
mentioned  they  did ;  and  they  did  so  without  reporting  facts.  The 
testimony  which  had  been  taken  by  them  was  kept  back ;  and  the 
Council  were  content  with  approving  of  the  opinions  of  the  committee, 
without  examining  the  facts  for  themselves. 

We  now  requested  an  investigation  before  the  Council,  that  every 
member  of  that  body  might  have  an  opportunity  of  knowing  all  the 
facts  of  the  case.  Our  request  was  refused  consideration,  and  we  had 
leave  granted  us  to  withdraw  it.  In  these  circumstances,  the  Council 
refusing  to  investigate,  or,  in  other  words,  content  with  acting  on  the 
faith  reposed  by  them  in  the  opinions  of  a  prejudiced  committee  of  only 
three  of  their  number,  and  on  the  ex  parte  statements  made  to  them  by 
the  Chancellor, — our  own  minds  having  become  thoroughly  convinced 
of  the  unfitness  of  Dr.  Mathews  for  the  office  which  he  held,  and  of 
the  impossibility  of  the  University  succeeding  under  his  administration, — 
and  rendered  uncomfortable  by  his  management  and  his  mismanage- 


15 


merit,  and  by  his  undue  assumptions  of  authority, — we  deemed  it  to  be 
a  duty  which  we  owed  to  ourselves,  to  the  public,  and  to  the  cause  of 
literature  itself,  to  resign  our  professorships. 

We  shall  now  offer  to  the  public  one  or  two  specimens  of  the  mal- 
administration  of  the  Chancellor ;  specimens  which  will  communicate 
to  their  minds  a  much  more  vivid  impression  of  the  state  of  things  in 
the  University,  past  and  present,  than  any  general  statements  are 
fitted  to  do. 

And  first,  in  regard  to  discipline.  What  will  any  one  acquainted 
with  colleges,  or  with  the  government  of  young  men — what  will  any 
person  of  common  sense,  say  to  the  following  case  ?  Dr.  Mathews 
stated  to  the  Faculty,  at  a  meeting  held  at  his  house  some  time  in  the 
end  of  last  winter,  (besides  Messrs.  Vethake  and  Mulligan,  Mr. 
Douglass,  and  it  is  thought  also  Mr.  Tappan,  being  present,)  that  he 
had  succeeded  in  restoring  order  in  one  of  the  Professors'  rooms.  He 
had  held  a  conversation  with  a  student  who  attended  that  Professor's 
class,  and  represented  to  him  that  if  the  disorder  should  continue,  the 
Council  would  be  obliged  to  dismiss — who,  reader,  do  you  think  ?  The 
troublesome  and  mischievous  students  ?  Nothing  of  this  sort  was 
lisped.  It  was  the  unfortunate  Professor  who  was  to  be  dismissed ! 
The  discipline  of  the  institution  had  been  reduced  to  so  low  an  ebb  that 
much  disorder,  in  the  very  presence  of  the  instructors  of  the  classes, 
frequently  occurred ;  and  which  in  vain  sought  for  a  remedy  from  the 
action  of  the  Faculty.  Their  energies  were  paralyzed  by  the  ineffi- 
ciency and  management  of  the  head  of  the  institution.  Nothing  what- 
ever had  been  done  by  them  as  a  body  that  was  at  all  calculated  to 
produce  the  proper  effect ;  and  no  attempt  had  been  made  by  them  to 
remedy,  in  particular,  the  disorder  in  the  apartment  alluded  to.  The 
misconduct  of  the  students  had  long  continued  there  with  impunity. 
At  length  the  Chancellor,  roused  to  make  an  extraordinary  effort  in 
favour  of  order,  fell  upon  the  expedient  which  we  have  mentioned. 
The  students  were,  in  fact,  told  that  if  they  wished  to  get  rid  of  a  Pro- 
fessor, they  had  only  to  be  disorderly  in  a  sufficient  degree ;  for  that 
then  he  must  be  dismissed.  It  is  true  that  the  Chancellor,  to  prevent 
so  disastrous  a  result  in  the  case  on  which  we  are  remarking,  made  an 
appeal  to  the  compassion  and  sympathies  of  the  young  men.  He 
pressed  upon  them  the  consequences  that  must  ensue  to  the  Professor's 
family,  who  depended  upon  him  for  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  spoke 
of  the  responsibilities  and  upbraidings  of  conscience  on  this  account  to 
which  they  would  subject  themselves  in  future,  if  they  persisted  in  their 
disorderly  course.  The  Chancellor  stated  to  the  Faculty  that  this 
appeal  had  been  successful   The  members, — a  considerable  propor- 


16 

tion,  too,  as  may  be  supposed  from  their  conduct,  very  young  members, — 
of  the  Professor's  class  had  held  a  meeting,  where  it  was  resolved,  in 
the  language  of  the  Chancellor,  "to  turn  over  a  new  leaf."  On  its 
being  suggested  that  this  was  hardly  the  proper  mode  of  managing  the 
case,  the  latter  replied  that  he  was  quite  certain  that  it  was  the  right 
way  ;  that  it  might  have  been  wrong  if  he  had  addressed  himself  to 
some  of  the  students ;  but  that,  when  speaking  to  the  individual  selected, 
it  was  the  "  very  thing," — as  if  all  that  he  stated  to  any  individual  was 
not  necessarily,  in  order  to  produce  the  intended  result,  to  be  commu- 
nicated to  the  whole  number  constituting  the  disorderly  class.  It  would 
be  insulting  the  common  sense  of  the  reader,  to  go  into  any  thing  like 
an  explanation  of  the  reasons  why  the  good  effect  produced  by  this 
exploit  of  the  Chancellor  could  only  be  of  a  temporary  nature,  while 
the  bad  effects  would  be  very  bad,  and  enduring  in  their  operation. 

We  proceed  to  give  another  specimen,  which  will  shed  light,  not  only 
on  the  Chancellor's  mode  of  procedure  in  reference  to  the  students,  but 
on  other  points  of  his  character  and  conduct  of  Which  we  complained. 
The  subject  of  having  a  public  commencement  had  been  fully  considered 
in  the  Faculty,  and  the  opinion  of  every  one  of  the  Professors  who  con- 
stituted the  acting  Faculty,  unequivocally  expressed  as  to  its  inexpe- 
diency. That  it  would  not  be  expected  by  the  public  in  the  first  year 
of  the  existence  of  the  University,  and  that  the  number  of  graduates 
would  at  most  amount  to  only  three  or  four,  were  among  the  reasons 
for  this  opinion.  But  it  is  unimportant  what  those  reasons  were.  It  is 
sufficient  for  our  purpose  that  the  reader  should  bear  in  mind  what  was 
the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  Professors,  and  that  it  was  distinctly  ex- 
pressed. About  a  couple  of  months  perhaps  after  this,  the  Chancellor 
brought  the  subject  again  before  the  Faculty,  there  being  present  Pro- 
fessors Douglass,  Vethake,  and  Mulligan,  and  he  prefaced  what  he  had 
to  say  on  the  subject  by  the  words,  as  nearly  as  the  two  last  mentioned 
gentlemen  recollect,  "  Since  it  is  settled  that  we  are  to  have  a  com- 
mencement." It  was  immediately  asked  by  whom  this  had  been  settled. 
Dr.  Mathews  answered,  by  the  Council.  On  a  marked  dissatisfaction 
being  then  expressed,  that,  under  all  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the 
Council  should  have  acted  in  it,  without  consulting  the  Faculty,  (their 
right  to  decide  the  matter  was  not  contested,)  the  Chancellor  informed 
the  Professors  that  it  was  not  the  Council,  but  the  "  Committee  of  Ad- 
vice," who  had  so  acted  ;  and  at  length  it  was  mentioned  by  him  that 
all  he  meant  to  convey  was,  that  certain  members  of  that  committee 
had  expressed  an  earnest  desire  to  have  a  public  commencement.  The 
Faculty,  notwithstanding,  persevered  in  their  opinion  of  its  inexpe* 
diency.    They  heard  nothing  more  on  the  subject  until  a  few  days 


before  the  examination  of  candidates  for  degrees  ;  when,  on  Professor 
Douglass  exhorting  these  young  men  to  use  all  diligence  to  improve  the 
time  yet  to  intervene  before  the  examination,  and  assuring  them  that 
their  obtaining  of  their  object  would  depend  on  the  character  of  thejr 
performances  on  that  occasion,  he  was  told  that  the  uncertainty  implied 
could  not  exist,  since  the  Chancellor  had  already  directed  one  of  the  can* 
didates  to  prepare  the  usual  «  Salutatory  Address"  in  Latin,  and  another 
to  write  the  "  Valedictory  Address."  Mr.  Douglass,  in  reply,  stated 
that  the  question  of  their  receiving  a  degree  was  certainly  not  yet  de- 
termined, and  could  not  be  until  they  should  have  been  examined ;  and 
moreover,  that  it  was  not  yet  settled  that  there  should  be  a  public  com- 
mencement. He  was  asked  if  the  Chancellor  was  not  the  proper  organ 
of  communication  from  the  Faculty  to  the  students.  To  this  he  gave 
for  answer,  that  such  was  unquestionably  the  fact,  but  that,  neverthe* 
less,  he  must  assure  them  that,  on  the  subject  of  conversation,  there 
had  been  no  action  on  the  part  of  the  Faculty. 

Shortly  after,  this  occurrence  was  related  to  the  Faculty  in  the  pre* 
sence  of  Dr.  Mathews.  We  will,  to  do  justice  to  him,  state  the  expla- 
nation which  he  then  gave  of  his  agency  in  the  transaction  to  which  it 
has  reference,  with  all  the  strength,  too,  which  he  subsequently  attempted 
to  give  to  it  before  the  committee  of  the  Council.  He  said  that  he  did 
not  appoint  the  young  men  to  prepare  the  speeches  that  have  been 
mentioned,  and  did  not,  therefore,  assign  to  them  of  his  own  motion  the 
honours  of  the  institution ;  that  he  only  told  A,  you  are  a  good  Latin 
scholar,  and  if  we  shall  have  a  public  commencement,  you  will  very 
probably  speak  the  Latin  Salutatory,  and  to  B,  that  he  would  very 
probably  have  the  Valedictory  assigned  to  him,  and  to  the  candidates 
generally,  that  there  was  no  harm  in  their  getting  ready  for  a  com- 
mencement if  there  should  be  one ;  and  that  inasmuch  as  it  had  been 
mentioned,  at  some  meeting  of  the  Faculty,  as  a  proper  thing,  even 
though  no  commencement  should  take  place,  for  each  of  the  young 
men,  whom  it  should  be  resolved  to  recommend  to  the  Council  for  de- 
grees, to  prepare  an  essay,  as  an  exercise  to  take  the  place  of  his  com- 
mencement speech, — he  thought  there  was  no  harm  in  setting  the  young 
men  to  work  in  the  preparation  of  their  speeches,  the  more  especially 
as  he  also  thought  the  time  allowed  them  for  that  purpose  might  otherwise 
be  rather  short.  Let  the  reader,  and  especially  the  reader  who  is 
acquainted  with  the  usages  of  colleges  and  universities,  decide  on  the 
merits  of  the  excuses  rendered. 

The  fact  was  that  Dr.  Mathews  had  his  mind  fully  set  on  having,  at 
any  rate,  some  public  display,  something  ad  captandum,  even  at  the  risk 
of  the  University  appearing  ridiculous  on  account  of  the  very  small 

3 


IS 


number  of  graduates  with  whom,  and  for  whose  sake,  it  was  to  be  made. 
In  despite  of  the  opinion  of  all  the  Professors,  he  could  not,  in  conse- 
quence, forego  the  object  of  having  a  public  commencement.  At  the 
very  meeting,  however,  of  the  Faculty  last  referred  to,  (on  the  tenth  of 
June,)  a  resolution  was  offered  declaring  it  to  be  inexpedient,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Faculty,  to  hold  one.  He  urged  upon  the  Professors 
the  postponement  of  that  resolution,  but  assigned  no  reasons  for  post- 
poning it  more  weighty  than  his  own  desire  for  this  being  done.  Had 
he  only  informed  the  Faculty  of  the  Council  having  a  few  days  before 
appointed  a  committee  to  confer  with  them  on  the  subject,  they  would, 
and  he  could  hardly  be  ignorant  that  they  would,  at  once  have  con- 
sented to  the  postponement  requested.  It  is  quite  probable,  we  think, 
that  the  motive  for  nothing  about  the  committee  being  said  on  the  occa- 
sion was  connected  with  an  apprehension  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Mathews 
that  a  conference  on  the  subject  between  the  Faculty  and  the  committee, 
might  not  so  surely  lead  to  a  result  favourable  to  his  own  views,  as  a 
system  of  management  would  do.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  fact  of 
the  appointment  of  the  committee  was  left  untold ;  and  the  resolution 
offered  was  not  postponed,  but  passed  by  a  vote  of  all  the  Professors 
present.  It  should  be  mentioned,  that  had  it  not  been  that  Mr.  Douglass 
was  not  certain  of  being  able  to  meet  with  the  Faculty  any  longer  than 
on  the  following  day,  (he  had  already  sent  in  his  resignation  to  the 
Council,)  the  Professors,  through  courtesy  to  the  Chancellor,  would  still 
have  agreed  to  the  postponement  of  the  resolution.  They  thought  it 
important,  for  reasons  which  need  not  be  here  stated,  that  Mr.  Douglass 
should  be  present  on  its  passage ;  and  on  its  being  about  to  be  post- 
poned till  the  next  day  only,  Dr.  Mathews  himself  signified  his  willing- 
ness that  the  vote  should  be  at  once  taken.  As  every  Professor  present 
voted  in  the  affirmative,  while  the  Chancellor  remained  silent,  it  was 
suggested  that,  if  such  was  the  fact,  the  word  "unanimously"  should 
be  inserted.  The  Chancellor,  however,  objected,  and  of  course  that 
word  was  not  inserted.  We  are  here  somewhat  minute ;  but  the  reader 
will  soon  perceive  the  reason  of  our  being  so. 

We  heard  nothing  farther  on  the  subject  of  a  commencement  until 
about  a  month  after.  We  were  just  at  the  end  of  the  University  ses- 
sion :  nothing  had  been  said  to  us  by  Dr.  Mathews,  or  by  the  com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Council  to  confer  with  us  ;  but  rumours  reached 
us,  through  the  students,  that  the  commencement  was  only  postponed, 
and  that  it  would  take  place  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  session.  In 
this  state  of  things  it  was  thought  right  by  the  Professors  to  pass  a 
resolution,  directing  their  previous  resolution  of  the  10th  of  June, 
declaratory  of  their  opinion  of  the  inexpediency  of  holding  a  public 


19 


Commencement,  to  be  transmitted  to  the  Council.  The  resolution  sd 
directing  was  passed  at  a  meeting  of  the  Faculty,  regularly  held,  from 
which,  however,  the  Chancellor  was  absent.  Its  passage  would  have 
been  delayed  on  account  of  his  absence,  had  the  Professors  not  been 
aware  that  the  Council  were  to  meet  in  the  afternoon,  and  had  it  not 
been  very  probable,  and  indeed  almost  certain,  that  no  other  meeting 
of  the  Council  would  be  held,  previous  to  the  separation  of  the  Facul- 
ty for  the  vacation.  The  Chancellor,  on  hearing  from  the  secretary 
of  the  Faculty  (Mr.  Tappan)  what  had  been  done,  immediately  col*, 
lected  the  Faculty  again  together,  and  urged  the  rescinding  of  the 
resolution  which  had  just  been  passed.  He  then,  for  the  first  time* 
communicated  to  the  Faculty  the  appointment  of  a  committee  of  the 
Council  more  than  a  month  before,  to  confer  with  them  on  the  subject 
of  a  commencement,  a  fact  with  which  some  of  the  members  had  be- 
come acquainted  through  other  channels  than  the  official  one  of  the 
Chancellor.  Partly  on  account  of  the  concealment  by  him  from  the 
Faculty  of  the  fact  in  question,  partly  from  a  desire  to  guard  against 
the  possibility  of  his  carrying  his  object,  by  management,  against  the 
unanimous  opinion  of  the  Professors,  and  partly,  also,  that  the  Council 
might  understand  that  the  Faculty  had  not  neglected  to  consider  the 
subject  to  which  the  resolution  related,  its  being  sent  to  the  Council 
was  persisted  in. 

The  secretary  of  the  Faculty  had  received  instructions  to  send  it  td 
the  Council  in  time,  for  their  meeting  of  the  afternoon.  It  did  not 
reach  the  Council  on  that  day  ;  and  Dr.  Mathews  being  inquired  of 
concerning  what  had  been  done  by  the  Faculty,  in  relation  to  a  public 
commencement,  answered,  as  we  are  informed,  very  vaguely,  in  a 
manner  to  lead  to  an  impression  that  the  Faculty  had  talked  over  the 
matter,  but  had  not  expressed  any  very  decided  opinions  in  relation  to 
it.  This  led  to  the  question  being  pointedly  put  to  him  by  a  member 
of  the  Council, — whether  they  had  not  passed  a  resolution  declaring  a 
public  commencement,  in  their  opinion,  to  be  inexpedient  ?  Dr.  Ma- 
thews replied,  that  some  such  resolution  had  been  passed,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Faculty,  when  he  was  not  present.  This  is  the  mistatement 
already  mentioned  as  having  been  excused  by  the  "  committee  of 
three,"  and  attributed  by  them  to  a  lapse  of  memory.  It  is  for  this 
reason  that  we  have  dwelt  so  long  and  so  minutely  on  the  circumstances 
connected  with  it.  That  lapse  of  memory  must,  indeed,  have  been  a 
remarkable  one,  which  took  place  on  the  afternoon  of  the  very  day  on 
which  so  much  discussion  was  had  on  the  subject  matter  forgotten. 
During  that  discussion,  let  it  be  observed,  that  not  a  word  was  uttered 
by  Dr.  Mathews  implying  that  he  was  not  perfectly  familiar  with  the 


30 


resolution  of  the  10th  of  June,  and  with  all  the  circumstances  relating 
to  what  passed  at  the  meeting  on  that  day,  when,  too,  the  conversation 
in  the  Faculty,  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Mathews,  and  between  him  and 
the  Professors,  was  so  full  as  has  been  above  detailed. 

We  have  given  the  history  of  only  two  cases  illustrative  of  the  mode 
in  which  the  Chancellor  has  conducted  the  administration  of  the  Uni- 
versity, and  we  have  already  occupied  much  more  space  than  we  had 
intended  doing,  and  much  more  than,  perhaps,  was  expedient,  for  we 
are  aware  that  to  be  read  we  ought  to  be  short.  We  shall  therefore 
merely  add,  that  cases  innumerable  might  be  adduced,  and  all  of  a 
similar  character  ;  all  of  them  indicating  either  incapacity,  a  spirit  of 
assumption  and  of  self-sufficiency,  or  a  tendency  to  inaccuracy  of 
statement  from  whatever  cause  arising,  and  together  producing  a  state 
of  things  in  regard  to  discipline,  almost  disastrous,  which,  even  at  the 
close  of  the  last  session,  when,  through  the  strenuous  exertions  of  the 
Professors,  in  opposition  to  the  measures  of  the  Chancellor,  the  disci- 
pline of  their  classes  was  in  a  considerable  degree  restored,  will  be 
rendered  perfectly  intelligible  to  all  who  are  practically  acquainted 
with  colleges  and  college  government,  by  telling  them,  that  on  a  stu- 
dent being  censured  in  a  way  that  he  did  not  like  by  one  of  the  Pro- 
fessors, for  impropriety  of  conduct,  (making  use  in  the  class  of  an 
English  translation  from  a  Latin  author,)  he  (the  student)  said  to  the 
Professor,  that  he  would  tell  the  Chancellor  of  him,  We  may  ask, — • 
Where,  in  our  country,  is  the  college  to  be  found  ,  in  which  a  student 
could  say  to  a  Professor,  that  he  would  tell  the  President  of  him  ? 
Nothing  of  the  kind  has  probably  ever  before  occurred ;  and  the  oc- 
currence, with  us,  of  the  case  that  has  been  mentioned,  will,  in  the 
opinion  of  most  Presidents  and  Professors  of  colleges,  be  indicative  of 
the  peculiarly  degraded  condition  to  which  the  Professors  in  the  Uni- 
versity were  and  are  reduced,  through  the  injudicious  management,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  of  the  Chancellor* 

How  the  "  Committee  of  three"  contrived  to  get  over  some  of  the 
facts  stated  to  them,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  only  class  of  facts,  in 
reference  to  which  they  undertook  to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  Chan^ 
cellor,  at  their  conference  with  the  Faculty,  was  the  class  of  restate- 
ments. We  have  seen  how  one  mistatement  has  been  since  attributed 
to  a  failure  of  memory ;  but  then  a  number  were  attempted  to  be  ex* 
plained  away,  where  there  was  any  room  for  so  doing,  by  stating  that 
when  the  Chancellor  should  have  said  that  a  certain  matter  had  been 
settled  by  the  Council,  he  was  perfectly  justified  in  expressing  himself 
as  he  did,  provided  the  "  Committee  of  Advice"  had  legislated  upon  it ;  be- 
cause that  committee  was  a  very  important  committee,  and  was  clothed 


21 


with  extraordinary  powers ;  and  moreover,  because  the  Council  seldom 
failed  to  ratify  whatever  that  committee  thought  proper  to  do.  For 
example,  when  the  committee  ("of  three")  were  told  that  Dr.  Ma. 
thews  had  said  that  the  Council  had  settled  the  question  of  the  wearing 
of  gowns  by  the  Professors  and  students,  although  the  Council  had  not 
in  fact  settled  any  such  thing ;  and  although  Dr.  Mathews  admitted  the 
matter  to  have  been  determined,  not  by  the  Council,  but  by  the  "  Com- 
mittee  of  Advice  ;"  they  justified  him  in  the  language  he  had  employed, 
as  substantially  correct.  Again,  when  the  case  of  Professors  Norton 
and  Hackley  were  brought  before  them,  and  it  was  stated  that  Dr. 
Mathews  had  written  to  those  gentlemen  during  the  summer,  informing 
them  of  their  appointment  to  the  situations  which  they  now  hold  in  the 
University  by  the  "  Committee  of  Advice  ;  "  that  they  had  declined  resign- 
ing their  commissions  in  the  army  on  such  an  appointment,  but  had  re* 
quired,  as  a  preliminary  to  their  doing  this,  an  appointment  from  the  Coun- 
cil ;  that  they  thereupon  received  a  communication  from  Dr.  Mathews, 
conveying  to  them  distinctly  the  impression  that  they  had  been  appointed 
as  they  wished ;  that  they  had  thereupon  resigned  their  commissions,  and 
come  to  the  city ;  that  they  were  inaugurated  as  Professors  of  the 
University  on  the  30th  day  of  September  last ;  that,  surprising  to  tell, 
they  were  only  appointed  by  the  Council  ten  days  afterwards  ;  and  that, 
consequently,  Dr.  Mathews  eould  not  have  before  stated  to  them  cor- 
rectly that  they  had  been  appointed  by  the  Council ;  they  (the  "  com- 
mittee of  three")  had  again  the  same  ready  answer  as  in  the  previous 
case, — an  answer  amounting  to  this,  that  the  "Committee  of  Advice" 
was  in  reality  the  Council;  and  besides  that,  in  this  instance,  Dr. 
Mathews  had  acted  by  the  express  direction  of  the  "  Committee  of 
Advice." 

We  were  about  to  state  that  the  case  of  Dr.  Gale  had  been  likewise 
explained  away  on  similar  principles.  But  this  was  not  the  fact* 
Neither  Dr.  Mathews,  nor  the  committee,  thought  it  expedient,  if  we 
recollect  right,  to  attempt  any  explanation  of  it.  Dr.  Gale  was  de- 
nominated by  Dr.  Mathews  a  Professor  in  the  University,  during  the 
last  summer,  in  a  letter  of  recommendation  written  in  his  behalf  to  an 
institution  at  the  south.  He  was  induced  to  appear  as  a  Professor  in  his 
gown  at  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  corner-stone  of  the  University 
edifice  in  July  ;  he  was  introduced  into  the  Faculty,  and  took  part  in 
its  deliberations  at  the  opening  of  the  present  session  of  the  University ; 
and  yet,  was  only  subsequently  nominated  as  assistant  to  Dr.  Torrey. 

But  enough  of  this  unpleasant  business.  We  shall  conclude  with  an 
observation  or  two  concerning  the  "  Committee  of  Advice,"  and  the 
Council. 


S3 

If  we  are  correctly  informed,  that  committee  had  its  origin  in  another" 
tbmmittee,  which  was  appointed  with  powers  to  make,  in  the  season  of 
the  cholera,  (1932,)  all  the  preparatory  arrangements  for  commencing 
operations  in  the  University  in  the  following  autumn.    The  circum- 
stances  under  which  they  were  appointed  were  certainly  very  peculiar ; 
and  the  Council  were  perhaps  justified  in  appointing  them,  in  the  diffi- 
culty,  and,  indeed,  impossibility  that  must  have  existed,  of  assembling 
a  quorum  of  members  for  the  transaction  of  business.    When  the  in- 
stitution was  organized,  their  extraordinary  functions  of  course  ceased, 
and  their  occupation  was  entirely  gone.    The  Council,  having  ratified 
their  acts,  should  then  have  entered  upon  the  regular  career  for  which 
they  were  ordained  by  their  charter  of  incorporation.    They  should 
not  only  not  have  devolved  their  powers  formally  upon  any  portion  of 
their  body,  but  should  also  have  resisted  every  attempt  on  the  part  of 
a  portion  of  their  body  to  usurp  practically  those  powers.  Against 
this  they  did  not  sufficiently  guard.    The  committee  of  organization* 
as  we  may  call  it,  was  unfortunately  resuscitated  as  a  "  Committee  of 
Advice,"  though  with  very  different  functions  to  perform.    What  those 
functions  were,  we  are  not  sufficiei.tly  informed  to  be  able  to  state. 
Whatever  they  may,  however,  have  originally  been,  the  committee,  it 
seems,  while  it  has  itself  become  the  mere  creature  of  the  Chancellor, 
acting  at  his  suggestion,  and  adopting  generally  whatever  he  suggests* 
has  gradually  assumed  upon  itself  the  whole  authority  of  the  Council* 
That  body  has  become  a  mere  registering  chamber  ;  and  it  meets 
for  scarce  any  other  purpose  than  to  ratify  the  decrees  of  the  "  Com* 
mittee  of  Advice." 

Thie  state  of  things  will  go  far  to  explain  to  the  public  how  it  has 
happened  that  the  Council  have  acted  in  the  manner  we  have  described, — 
how  it  is  that  they  have  so  perse veringly  shut  their  eyes  against  all 
statements  of  the  affairs  of  the  University,  excepting  such  as  came  from 
the  Chancellor,  and  have  shown  such  a  determination  to  uphold  him  at 
all  events.  To  attach  blame  to  the  Chancellor,  was  to  attach  blame 
to  the  "Committee  of  Advice,"  who  had  gone  along  with  him  in  his 
measures ;  and  to  question  the  correctness  of  what  was  approved  by 
the  "  Committee  of  Advice,"  was  to  cast  censure  on  the  Council,  who 
"  always  ratified"  the  acts  of  the  committee.  The  Council  very  natu- 
rally regarded  themselves  as  one  party  in  a  contest,  and  the  undersigned 
as  another.  They  were  thus  induced  to  think  that  we  ought  to  be 
"  treated  with  severity,"  and  "  to  be  made  to  feel  our  own  insignificancy." 

We  do,  however,  candidly  confess,  that  we  do  not  think  what  has 
just  been  said  affords  a  sufficiently  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  course 
pursued  by  the  Council.    We  do  not  think  so  ill  of  that  body,  or  of  the 


23  ■' 

strength  of  our  case,  even  when  presented  to  them  through  the  at 
dental  channels,  and  in  the  scanty  measure,  in  which  it  has  been  per 
mitted  to  reach  them.    There  is  no  doubt  on  our  minds,  that  did.  n^  ' 
the  Council  feel  that  the  University  "  wanted  money,  and  must  have  it," 
and  had  they  not  a  conviction  that  Dr.  Mathews  is  particularly  valua- 
ble to  them  as  a  procurer  of  that  indispensable  commodity,  they  would 
very  soon  come  to  have  the  same  views  in  respect  to  that  individual  as 
ourselves. 

It  is  our  decided  impression,  that  more  subscriptions  by  far  are  with* 
holden  from  the  University,  on  account  of  the  general  want  of  confidence 
in  the  Chancellor,  than  can  be  expected  to  be  furnished  by  his  immediate 
friends.  But  be  this  as  it  may.  it  is  almost  exclusively  on  the  ground 
we  have  mentioned,  that  we  have  heard  his  being  continued  in  office 
defended.  In  no  instance  have  we  heard  ascribed  to  him  the  proper 
qualifications  such  an  officer  might  be  expected  to  have.  We  have, 
on  the  contrary,  been  told,  and  the  "  committee  of  three"  were  told,  by 
one  of  his  most  devoted  friends,  of  his  "amiable  weaknesses," — a 
strange  expression  to  be  used  in  reference  to  the  presiding  officer  of 
such  an  institution  as  the  University  was  intended,  and  ought,  to  have 
been ! 

We  have  understood  that  members  of  the  Council,  too,  have  taken  a 
similar  ground  ;  and  we  are  charitable  enough  to  suppose  that  Mr, 
Tallmadge,  when  he  held  his  memorable  conversation  with  Mr.  Mulli- 
gan, did  not  mean  to  state  the  absolute  standard  of  morals  maintained 
by  himself  or  the  Council,  but  rather  that,  in  his  and  their  opinion,  the 
question  was  one  of  fife  and  death  to  the  institution, — of  dishonourable 
life,  or  of  immediate  death  for  want  of  the  golden  life-blood,  which  Dr. 
Mathews  was  supposed  to  be  alone  capable  of  extracting  from  the  veins 
of  the  community, — and  that  life,  however  dishonourable,  was  the 
preferable  choice  of  the  two. 

On  these  principles  we  believe  the  question  at  issue  between  the 
Chancellor  and  Professors  to  have  been  decided.  On  these  principles 
the  undersigned  have  been  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  resigning  their 
Professorships,  or  remaining  in  an  institution  administered  in  a  manner 
which  they  utterly  disapprove,  and  governed  arbitrarily  by  an  individual 
in  whom  they  have  lost  all  confidence. 

The  public  can  now  judge  how  far  they  will  be  able  to  ratify  the 
practical  resolution  arrived  at  by  the  Council  of  the  University,  to 
sacrifice  the  undersigned  for  the  sake  of  Dr.  Mathews. 

With  an  apology  for  the  length  to  which  this  address  has  been  re- 
luctantly extended, — and  with  a  renewed  expression  of  the  pain  which 
we  feel  in  stating  what  must  necessarily  be  offensive  to  the  feelings  of 


24 


number  of  individuals,  even  when  this  is  done  purely  for  the  purpose 
">f  self-justification,  and  in  order  that  the  public  may  understand,  and 
bv  tfee  force  of  their  opinion  rectify,  if  it  be  possible  yet  to  rectify,  the 
mismanagement  of  an  institution  in  which  they  have  a  deep  interest, — 
we  conclude  by  subscribing  our  names. 

HENRY  VETHAKE, 
JOHN  MULLIGAN, 
JOHN  TORREY, 


New-York,  Nov.  2lst,  1833. 


